StarCom were a good, peacekeeping force in space and they battled against the evil Emperor Dark and his Shadow Force Starmada. Emperor Dark’s goal was domination of the galaxy. The StarCom toys had different factions/teams with the Astro Marines, Star Wing and Starbase Command. 

StarCom toys were released in 1986 by the company Coleco in the United States. Due to poor marketing they did not prove to be popular in the U.S. Many think the unpopularity was due to poor marketing, such as not making it clear that mechanisms were clockwork and did not require batteries. 

An animated series was released in 1987 but only lasted one season. Coleco went bankrupt and were bought out by Mattel, who continued to release the StarCom toys. The first two series of the toys (1986 and 1987) were released in the U.S. but other releases only came out in Europe. The first two series had specific vehicle driver/ pilot figures. However, after the two initial series, vehicles were supplied with random figures that had come on cardbacks.  

They were released by Mattel in the rest of the world, and proved to be very popular in Europe and South East Asia. This led to the toys being released in these regions, but not in the United States. 

In the United States, the StarCom toys were sold as the “U.S. Space Force” and had the American flag on the logo. The American aspect was taken off by Mattel, for the sales in countries outside of America. 

StarCom was a clever toyline which had mechanisms that worked with clockwork power rather than battery power. This was called “Power Deploy.” It was a clever idea but over the years many of the mechanisms have ceased to work. Some are repairable but can be quite complicate and fragile. StarCom toys also had “Magna Lock.” The idea was that magnets were places on the feet of the figures and on the vehicles. Figures could then be stood on vehicles and would not come off-even when upside down! Figures could be placed in certain places and the magnets would also activate mechanisms.

The figures and their accessories were very small and many have been lost over the years. The visors on the figures were fragile and many of these were also lost over the years.  You can access my accessory guide here or click the link at the top.